And the adventures continue.

We got home Tuesday from yet another little adventure. We headed down to Iowa for my dad's side family reunion in Okoboji this past weekend. Here is a photo of most of us who were there this year. We unfortunately didn't gather people together until after some had already departed. Good lookin' bunch!

These photos are not in order and I am too busy (lazy?) to rearrange them, so please bear with me! On Monday Dan and I took the boys to the local (very old) amusement park, Arnold's Park. The boys remembered the rides from last year. We had a blast!

Sammy, like last year, was not super fond of the fishies. TOO FAST, MAMA.

Here was Sammy on the fishies last year. I think closing his eyes was his coping mechanism. This year he didn't mask his fear and let the tears run free. Maybe next year we'll skip the fishies! :)

We were so happy to have my dad with us at the park for a bit that day. We love Gramps! Shortly after this photo was taken, the train ran out of gas (not kidding) so we had to depart from inside the tunnel we had been chugging through.

As always, we loved our time with family. The boys have some second cousins that were fun playmates. The older boys adored Sammy and wanted to spend all kinds of time with him. It was super cute.

The kids were able to have a movie night one night. Cookies and a movie and lots of snuggle time!

Karsten and Sammy were buds.

We even got a few boat rides, thanks to my uncle.

Sammy and Cate (and Cowwy...can't forget Cowwy) were a good team on the boat.

My friend Heather lives nearby, so she and her kids headed up for a visit. I was so happy to be able to spend some time with them!

My boys, doing some lake lounging.

Saturday was also my 20-year high school class reunion, so Dan and I left the boys with my dad and stepmom for a night and headed two hours south to attend that. It was fun! Really fun. I am fortunate to be a part of such a tight, fun, kind, smart group of friends. Our time together went way too fast!

We couldn't leave Okoboji without having frozen yogurt with Gramps by the lake!

The past week for Elijah has been rough. He is not just tired from our escapades in the past month...he is exhausted. All of the sleep lost over the past month is finally catching up to him. His behavior has not been good. Not at all. It has been frustrating, but I get it.

So what do I do? I send him off on another vacation, of course! :) Seriously, it probably wasn't in his best interest, but he and Sammy do not get much time with my dad and stepmom and that outweighs everything in my mind. We loaded Elijah and Sammy into my parents' car this morning and sent them up to Northern MN for a few days to visit more family. I stayed back to get some much-needed work done at home. And possibly skydive (we'll see). I will head up in a couple days to bring them back home. I pray that the experiences they are having and memories they are making are worth the exhaustion. I have never seen Elijah like this before, so please pray with me for miraculous sleep and rest for his little body! Sammy just goes with the flow. He has had his tired moments in the past week, too, but is much more even-keeled than his bro. That, and he is able to sleep past 6:00 a.m.

That's us in a crazy nutshell. In less than a week, we will start getting back into a routine and part of me is really looking forward to that. We will also be missing our fun summer adventures, which makes me sad!

I am about 2/3 of the way through writing about our summer heart road trip. It is taking longer than I thought, but it feels so good to get it all out! I cannot wait to share it. Soon! Until next time..